Philippines not a dumping site – Chiz

DAGUPAN CITY – Senator Chiz Escudero said Canada was not the first to dump its garbage to the Philippines, and that it was Japan which was the first to attempt to make the Philippines its dumping site.
But the good news was the Philippines was firm in its resolve to return the garbage to Japan, and it was able to do so.
However, he did not mention how many tons of wastes Japan brought to the Philippines.
Escudero said the country should maintain its position not to allow any country to make any country dump its garbage to the Philippines.
He said the Senate Committee on Environment has ordered the interagency task force on the Canadian wastes to coordinate with the Canadian government through its ambassador, for the shipment back of the waste to its country of origin.
T he committee gave the order to the task force during the hearing on Wednesday. The task force is composed of the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Bureau of Customs and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
He said the shipping back of the Canadian garbage was in consonance with the Basel Convention to which Cadana was a signatory.
The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal, is an international treaty that was designed to reduce the movements of hazardous waste between nations, and specifically to prevent transfer of hazardous waste from developed to less developed countries .

The Convention is also intended to minimize the amount and toxicity of wastes generated, to ensure their environmentally sound management as closely as possible to the source of generation, and to assist LDCs in environmentally sound management of the hazardous and other wastes they generate.
“Kung may basurang pinadala, obligation ng bansang pinanggalingan na kunin ulit at ibalik sa bansa kung saan galing,” he said.
Escudero said the Canadian was discovered when there was a congestion in the Manila port.
Every container vans were inspected, and the inspectors came upon foul smell emanating from some container vans in a corner.
They then discovered the 118, 40-foot container vans with 2,600 metric tons of garbage from Canada.
, he said.
“That is the volume of garbage that should be returned,” he said.